Haiti suffers Neo-liberalism

By peg:jclancy in cdp:reg.carib, 18 December 1995

Whether its neo-nazism or neo-liberalism, or a few other brilliant
neo's, their birthplace arises from America's attitudes and policies
towards the rest of the world in general, and towards the accumulation
of wealth for USA's wealthy in particular. And so it is in Haiti,
whose people are still basking in US slavery. Why can't these
Republicans/Democrats come up with something new and decent - even
honest, and give the world a break?

Haitians realize that there is nothing new for them in the sale to US
corporations of all national assets. The local land- owners will still
own their bodies and souls via dividends from investing in the US
corporations. The repression and threats of torture, murder and
injustice will still be there. The US does not believe in education or
health care for its workers, which of course is the reason it must
kill all Fidel's happy Cubans.

The position on Haiti on election day is clouded by the presence of
6000 foreign troops -Americans definitely included- to watch out for
US plans and interests. The US ambassador proclaims that the people
want democracy! True, but that is not what they're going to get -only
US neo-democracy. The Constitution disallows any persons associated
with the Duvalier regimes from holding public office until 1997. There
are thousands of these lurking in the lists of candidates, but the new
world cop will brush that aside for the moment and install a new
constitution later.

Preval, the new President has called for land reform and more food for
all, insisting that the world's banks and private enterprise will
correct the economy. A group of US economists, activists and
developers heard of the peoples' main concerns of jobs, food, homes
and real fair justice, which eclipse the importance of the
elections. But the US masters will not collect taxes from the rich, or
provide social security for the poor, so how, exactly, will the brains
trusts scheme a system whereby the foreign debts will stabilise, then
be repaid, in a climate where the US cannot repay its own massive $5
trillion plus debts.

The people also know that if the industry and services that do have
Haitian workers are sold off for 'efficiency', then where will the
sacked workforce earn their 5-10cents per hour and still pay tax? One
peasant described these neo-liberalist methods as a death plan. The
people also know of the resultant starvation futures being suffered by
others in US enforced client states, which, like Mexico and Brazil
work in US industries and cash crop enterprises, produce cheap
tobacco, sugar, timber, rice, meat, for US profits, but have a future
clouded in misery, death squads and injustice.

And, as in those poor US client states, Haiti is to have an enforced
'reconciliation' legitimising all past US CIA and Fraph crimes. Thus
the US will control any attempted Justice system. All proposed
changes are said to be a knife in the back of Haiti. Another
advantage for Fraph members was the Pentagon revelation that it had
only 150,000 pages of detail seized from Fraph and Cedras' Army, yet
it arrogantly insisted that the documents belong to the ousted Army
not the Haitian parliament. Hence they now belong to the USA as US
troops had 'seized' them. These papers detail the history of CIA
involvement in this poor Country. JC